Atchison Black business history project seeks photos and memorabilia by Friday

Family photographs, storefront snapshots and old scrapbooks tucked away in Atchison attics could help save pieces of the city’s Black business history, but organizers say they need them by Friday.

The call comes as the Atchison County Historical Society continues work on the future Historic Black Business District Museum building, a 1920 structure in the 1100 block of North 7th Street by LFM Park. The society said work on the building began Nov. 9, 2024, and the effort now reaches beyond bricks and mortar to the family records, business papers and keepsakes that can show what the district meant to the people who lived and worked there.

The district project is meant to preserve the only remaining buildings from a once-prosperous all-Black business district, while also creating a business incubator, building a Black history museum and increasing awareness of Black contributions to Atchison. The historical society says the broader goal is to build pride across ethnic, religious and cultural boundaries, making the project as much about the city’s future as its past.

That is why organizers are asking residents to look through closets, photo albums, storage boxes and scrapbooks for anything tied to Black-owned businesses in Atchison. Old business photographs, event programs, storefront images, family papers and objects connected to local merchants could help fill gaps in the historical record and give the museum richer material for exhibits and interpretation.

The effort is unfolding alongside other work to highlight Atchison’s Black community, including the Juneteenth Celebration Committee. Local coverage has pointed to the Black Business District restoration and Juneteenth organizing as part of a larger push to bring attention to that history, while University of Kansas reporting noted that the Boldridge sisters, lifelong Atchison residents and historical society members, have led grassroots work to research, preserve and reimagine the district as a cultural hub for future generations.

The setting carries its own history. LFM Park takes its name from the Locomotive Finished Materials Company, later Bradken, which originally created the park for employees. The historical society itself was founded in 1967, and its museum is housed in the historic 1880 Santa Fe Freight Depot at 200 South 10th Street in Atchison.

The society is also using T-shirts tied to the Black History Museum opening to support renovation of the other buildings in the complex, another sign that the project depends on public help as much as preservation work. For Atchison, the deadline is short, and the stakes are personal: what turns up this week could shape how the city tells its own story for years to come.